Ok folks, this went late last night. As noted before a bit of editing went on, if you don't like how it appears, you can always re-ask your own questions directly.
Sorry the spacing has gone a bit wooly (a feature of posting on here) but hopefully you get the gist.
Cheers,
Phil
=========
Trinidad
Why have we not seen even the bones of a field development plan (FDP) yet?
The Petrotrin announcements / Trinidad ministry report would imply a stock of uncompleted wells from earlier in the year. Can the company update us on the status of these wells?
It's a question EVERY investor is constantly asking and we've never had satisfactory answers (with clarity and honesty). One may 'assume' the rigs issues go back to the fatality in early 2013, around this time bopd started to decline. It also seems reasonably safe to assume the rigs have failed inspection several times, this is the only way I can reconcile the constant reported refurbs and awaiting inspection. Is this correct, what’s the problem, what's the history of where it went wrong, is it linked to STOW (Safe TO Work)?
How much money will the continual delay in increasing Trinidad production over the last few years cost the company now the oil price is much lower?
In previous years we have been advised that key personnel in Trinidad have been given lengthy periods of leave over Christmas and New Year. Please advise what impact there will be on drilling and operational activity over the festive period this year?
When are we actually going to ramp up drilling and get Petrotrin to authorise the drilling of RRL's wells with RRL's rigs?
How will we fund the waterflood?
What key performance indicators (KPIs) do you use to track manpower productivity in Trinidad and how have these looked this year?
How has the new incentives package for Trinidad staff bedded in, and how well are operational staff earning those incentives so far? What percentage or amount has been put aside for productivity incentives in 2015?
Can the company please advise what was the final outcome and current status of wells MD248 and QUN135?
Why did the company pretend that everything was going well over the summer and then hit shareholders with the announcements at the end of September that it wasn’t, and in fact hadn’t been for several months?
The revised production target of 1,000 bopd in first half 2015 vice end of 2014 is a very vague time frame given that it is a six month period, targetted from just three months out. Why is the target not more precise, have the management no proper plan?
What is Walter Cukavacs’ current role in Trinidad and given his presence during a period of poor operational performance with rig failures (e.g. Rig 8 on well MD248) what is being done to improve his performance and that of his team?
Five rigs were reportedly operational earlier in the Summer but few have actually done any drilling, from Trinidad ministry reports. What was the result of the “Wave 1” review on these assets?
What were the root causes of past issues in Trinidad, in detail (not just "lack of investment"), leading to the underperformance? Of these issues which are now solved and which are yet to be resolved and the timescale for doing so?
Is anything preventing 4 or more of the rigs operating 24/7 (which would represent a not unreasonable 80% availability).
What is required to bring the final rig(s) – Rig 7 and Rig 8 – back to life? Is it purely money? Is it feasible/worth it?
1,000 bopd seems like a very low target if you've got stacks of funding available (as suggested by the AGM resolutions and further in the recent Core proposal). What is this based on and does this mean the company strategy is not to get as many shallow/mid depth wells drilled as possible soon and get the bopd/profit/revenue up quickly? If not why not?
What are the performance targets specifically for Will Duncan, Douglas Field, Walter Cukavacs, Terry Motley and the 3 Trinidad operations supervisors? How they have changed from maintenance, training, health and safety to production and exploration now and through early part of 2015?
Are there currently any issues over availability of key rig spares in Trinidad? If so what are the show-stopping components concerned and what is being done about it?
There were reports from the company in the early days of the Trinidad operation that an individual had been hired specifically address issues on key interfaces with Petrotrin. Is this individual still employed, if so what value have they added?
Can the Board please comment on the performance of our neighbours LGO in Trinidad? Why is Range not emulating their recent success?
What happened to the proposed partnership with Leni Gas & Oil? The deal appears to have lapsed – why was this not announced?
Does Range have Safe to Work permits signed off yet by the government for the rigs? Which ones are outstanding, what are the timescales and what is the action plan to remedy this? If there is a problem with Petrotrin, when did a Director last speak to Petrotrin at a suitably senior level about the matter?
Which of the 6 drilling and 6 production rigs are operational and could be physically drilling tomorrow?
What are the plans for those rigs not capable of drilling tomorrow?
In the September 30th audio file “year of transformation” at around 9 min in, Rory Scott Russell states Range are CONSTRUCTING NEW WAREHOUSE & OFFICE FACILITIES. Considering the shocking state of the RRL drill equipment, why did management prioritize a building project instead of money to improve/ modify equipment and keep oil workers drilling for oil revenue?
Someone amongst they 250+ people employed by RRL in Trinidad is surely looking ahead and trying to plan who should be doing what with which drilling equipment in what location in our 1,000s of acres of supposedly oil bearing ground. Let's assume that this someone knows how to use a spreadsheet and is collating the latest information concerning the availability of each employee, the state of all the drilling equipment and the latest 'guess' at where the best place to drill is located. Why not share this information with the long suffering shareholders with as many disclaimers as the RRL management feel comfortable with? If there isn't anyone doing this then there are plenty of Range shareholders available at a considerably smaller salary than the BoD who damn well should have arranged for someone to be doing this a long time ago.
Looking back at the recent corporate presentation, HSSE indicators such as Near Misses and Lost Time Incidents demonstrating HSSE performance over 12 months were published. Are there any specific metrics in place to measure and benchmark productivity and drilling performance? For example KPIs such as Drilling Rig Utilization rate, % Drilling Rig Availability, % Non Productive Drilling Time etc., and if so can these also be published along with any targets?
Texas, Georgia & Puntland
Is Puntland going forward. If so, when?
What has happened to the proposed sale of the Georgian assets? Is it still up for sale and what current active steps are being taken on it e.g. what have you done on this matter in the past week?
So where exactly are we with the Texas sale that was on hold due to a restructure of the company buying it? Is it a dead sale and if so why don't you tell us that they pulled the plug?
Why was the drilling of Albrecht-2 well in Texas together with its subsequent result as non commercial not announced by the company until the recent annual accounts? Given the reputedly ongoing sale process for Texas, what impact did the failure of that drill have on the sale?
Corporate
Why have none of the new directors bought shares in the company?
Why are the directors not slashing their salaries to reflect the slide in the share price?
There has been a complete lack of detail about the very significant $50m funding including proposed use of this money as announced on 3rd November. Why is this and how does the Board imagine shareholders can sensibly vote on the AGM resolutions with this in the background?
Why was mass dilution not pushed through when the share price was higher e.g. closer to 2p?
Why the 180 degree change in strategy from consolidation of assets to acquisition (suggested in the 3rd November RNS)?
Will the board agree to not taken lump sums or anything that can make them cash if Range gets taken over sub 3p... no options or anything?
Why are options being proposed for directors who have not purchased any shares? Shouldn't they be limited in amount to the number of shares the directors already own?
Can the board explain why the think shareholders would be happy to issue them 15 million shares with no link to performance when since they have come on board they have watched the share price go from around mid 2p to currently less than three quarters of a penny?
Why should we reward you for shockingly poor performance and distinct lack of clarity over what you are planning to do with this company going forward both in relation to its finance and its drilling activities?
What does “shareholder value” mean to the company?
Who is behind the facilitation of the latest finance package and how much will be generated in fees?
From a simple business point of view, ( profit and loss etc.) why is our company in such a poor state and what are RSR's short, medium and long term targets ?
When will be the mooted share buy back informally promised by Peter Landau occur?
Does the fall in oil price make it more likely that oil exploration and production companies like RRL will be taken over as suggested by Bloomberg's?
What action have the company taken to hedge against the oil price drop?
What will be the full cost of the $5m Lind deal?
When will directors buy shares in this company rather than look to cream margins from options?
Will the directors be cutting their salaries to compensate shareholders for the losses which occurred under their watch?
LandOcean are reportedly very pleased with the equity investment by Core, given the guarantees that they (LO) have been offered and resumption of the original targets they agreed. So they will benefit on the equity investment side as well as the business margins side. Why do we have to get this information from LandOcean and not Range Resources ?
It is understood from certain research sources that Core Capital know Land Ocean and there is a business connection between them. Given the existing relationship between Range and Land Ocean, why was this not disclosed in the 3rd November announcement?
The Core convertible loan proposed in the 3rd November announcement – at whose discretion is it convertible?
The registration for the investment designee was established before the AGM resolutions so why were the intentions not made clearer?
Can you please explain why you apparently feel this doesn't apply to Range: Rule 11 of the AIM code, which reads: ”An AIM company must issue notification without delay of any new developments which are not public knowledge which, if made public, would be likely to lead to a significant movement in the price of its AIM securities.”?
Are you deliberately eroding the share price and dishing out shares, as well as streamlining the company and ridding it of its extra assets (but not actually selling any for any profit), in order to incite or enable a takeover?
What is the role of each executive and non executive director?
What is the plans for the company quarter on quarter over 2015 in terms of funding, capital expenditure, production and profit?
Can you explain the rationale for using equity funding rather than LO debt funding, is the LO funding still available?
It's over 12 months since the previous management told us Reserve Based Lending (RBL) was available. There have been persistent rumours that RBL was available from Credit Suisse, what's the current board’s view on these rumours?
The going concern qualification in the last accounts - has this or will this be resolved before year-end, such that the interim accounts will not be similarly qualified?
Will it be ensured that the final mix of subscribing institutional investors will not represent more than 50% of the voting shares and hence prevents collusion on decisions going forward?
Why does Mr Edwards-Jones feel it appropriate to stand for re-election as a Non-Executive Director of Range when he has been present during a catastrophic phase in its history. Has he no shame? Why has his much-vaunted biographical expertise in financing not been used in the best interests of the company and its shareholders during the period?
Why did the new directors not take up the options as announced earlier in the year?
Given the previously announced security over IOP’s assets announced last year, why was only £500K recovered? What due diligence was undertaken and what action is being taken against those who gave such assurances that security was in place?
Questions for Rory Scott Russell – (1) Why did you leave Shell? (2) Are you glad you left?
Is the Chief Financial Officer a qualified accountant? His biography surprisingly doesn’t mention any accounting background.
Given the appalling recent financial history of Range and the clear need for good financial stewardship in the future, why is the Chief Financial Officer not an Executive Board member? Is this following a model that is often found in Asia, and if so, why?
Why have you tied us to 1p with the second $30m from Core?
Why would you not try to improve ops and the share price via some basic drilling using the first $20m,getting the bopd/revenue/profit up, and dilute at a higher price than a massive amount at 1p?
Are Core able to choose whether they convert? If they can choose does this not leave the company vulnerable to a low ball takeover?
Given the $30M Core deal was announced at the same time as St Mary’s, are these connected? Was for example this an option for financing exploration etc. that was needed to close on the licence?
The LIND deal was re-negotiated and the ‘premium’ share price reduced by 30%. This suggests that a dilution clause was triggered, to compensate for 30% additional dilution over the term of the loan. Is this correct?
Is the majority of the $30m from Core to fund the waterflood?
Is the Core deal just a proposal? If so why is it being proposed?
With Abraham’s and Lind, we where told of the deals when conditions had been determined and just shareholders approval was required. With Core, the headline deal was put out, thin on details, no mention of share holder approval and in the middle of voting for other financial deals / provisions. So from one extreme to another in a short space of time and causing confusion over the potential deal and it’s relation to the placement and additional 10% resolutions. Why?
In the AGM resolutions it is stated that the participants for the additional shares have not been determined, despite the fact that the CORE discussions would have started sometime before, as subsequently announced. Does the Board not agree that this appears duplicitous, and if not, why?
Communications
What is the best way to communicate with Range Resources and it's senior staff? Many find communications through Eva and Buchanans is like dealing with an Asian call centre where they can only reply from a script and the script says "Price sensitive". A letter sent to RSR by first class post on 10th November asking for clarification on some resolutions for the AGM remains unanswered and unacknowledged as at 18th November. Similarly Range Investor Group's letters go unanswered or only part answered. How can a shareholder be expected to make a reasoned decision if the company won't respond to written questions?
A fortnightly Q&A release ran for a short period in 2012 until clearly major price sensitive news on well MD248 – that should have been announced separately – was inserted in it causing the process to become discredited and it ceased thereafter (unannounced). Given the large number of questions shareholders have, can consideration be given to resurrecting such a useful information channel for non-critical but informative news?
Can the Board please commit to monthly drilling and production updates from Trinidad?
*** End ***
Statistics: Posted by ErraticPhil — Thu Nov 27, 2014 9:22 am